"We should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints." - Jude 3."CONTEND for the faith" has been the inspiring battle-cry of Baptists all along the centuries, and with it they have conquered. It should be ours no less; for Christianity is powerless unless aggressive. It has no days of quietness and repose. It is always on the battle field. Paul's declaration to Timothy rang out clear and strong when he said: "Fight the good fight of faith " (1 Timothy 6:12); and he exhorted Timothy to do only what he himself had done. For, from his imprisonment at Rome, he wrote among his farewell words: "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." (2 Timothy 4:7.)
It seems never to have been God's purpose to grant his churches great prosperity when they failed to go forward; but his greatest blessings have come in darkest times, when the churches have put forth their most earnest efforts, and struck their hardest blows. This seems to be the divine plan. For Christ sent forth his first workers under instructions
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to antagonize the beliefs and practices of men everywhere, and, having conquered, to make disciples of them. (Matthew 28:19, 20.) Paul's ministry exemplifies this divine plan; for no one can follow him in his work over Asia Minor and Greece without seeing that, everywhere and always, he was contending for the faith. His open enemies, within and outside of the churches, kept him busy at this. And Paul's inner life, which in some measure some think has been portrayed for us in the seventh chapter of Romans, shows that his inner experience was identical in character with his outward.I. We may accept it as a divine law that Christians must always contend for the faith.
1. Loyalty to Christ demands it. Social influence, family ties, wealth and culture, are sometimes powerful in tempting to silence or apology those who stand squarely for a New Testament Christianity. The doctrines which we must preach antagonize human pride and worldly ambition. The richest and the most honored of earth must bow before Christ just as the poorest and most debased, and confess their nothingness, before they can be forgiven. The human heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, and, no matter how much culture a man has, he must be born again. Every believer must publicly profess Christ in baptism, and take upon himself the badge of discipleship. He must deny himself, mortifying his selfishness, which is the root principle of sin, and help to bring this world to Jesus. To say these things to men is often to rouse in them the spirit of opposition. But with those who would obey the New Testament there can be no question as to duty. These and all the other doctrines of grace must be faithfully presented to men. To Christ alone are we responsible.
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We must be loyal to him. Those of us especially who are called of God to preach must be true, and aid to stand by the truth all who profess to be the Lord's disciples. And no man can be loyal to Jesus who, for any cause, is afraid to contend for the faith. Loyalty to Christ and contending for the faith stand side by side in the Christian life.2. Our Baptist predecessors contended for the faith, and thus handed it down to us. The scene before the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem, when Peter and John were commanded to preach no more about Jesus, was re-enacted many times in their experiences. When commanded to preach no more as they had done, and to stop crying out against error and sin, and burying converts in the likeness of Christ, they, in the spirit of the apostles, would say: "Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, jndge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard." (Acts 4:19, 20.) They willingly gave up everything in defense of the doctrines which to-day are our precious heritage. They sang, in substance:
"And must I part with all I have,
My dearest Lord, for thee?
It is but right, since thou hast done
Much more than this for me."Yes, let it go; one look from thee
Will more than make amends
For all the losses I sustain
Of honor, riches, friends."An open Bible, with the right of private interpretation, immersion alone as baptism, freedom to worship God according to the dictates of conscience, separation of church
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and state, baptism of believers only, the spirituality of Christ's kingdom, and the equality of believers, are some of the things for which Baptists have had to contend. Deprived of property, and often of civil liberty, and beaten with many stripes, they yet dared to stand against the civil power, and culture and wealth. They counted all things but loss for the excellency of the gospel of Christ. For this they suffered, and for this some of them died; but they suffered and died because they would contend for the faith. It is but little more than one hundred years since the last of such terrible contentions; but the glorious results of their steadfastness of purpose are to-day blessing our entire land and world. The right of every citizen of our country to worship God as he pleases is one result largely, if not wholly due to Baptists. That article in the National Constitution which guarantees absolute religious liberty to all was secured as an amendment by Baptist influence. Another result secured to us is the bringing of other Christians to the true baptism. In some sections of our country Pedobaptists are baptizing their members, when baptism is requested. The increasing disuse of infant sprinkling is still another result secured by Baptists in contending for the faith. John Bunyan did not suffer for nothing in Bedford jail, nor did Roger Williams, nor did Obadiah Holmes. They all suffered, and thus handed down to us New Testament faith and order. And we must contend for these to-day, that we may hand them down to others.3. Antagonists will often force us to contend for the faith. The method of attacking Christianity has greatly changed in the last century. Men do not come to us so much now after the manner of Paine and Voltaire. Their
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attacks are more specious. With an acknowledgment that some things in Christianity are true, they deny the truth of other things, especially such as are vital. They bring science, falsely so called, to their aid. They would make God unknowable; they would reason away the efficacy of prayer ; they would annihilate the doctrine of a vicarious atonement; or they would make the soul material, and thus destroy the doctrine of a future life. When men thus attack the truth we must not be fearful, but must go forth and contend for the faith. Even the gates of hell shall not prevail against us if we go forth in Christ's service, to contend for him. We must meet a false science with that which is true. Against the deductions of a false philosophy we must oppose the word of God. Not one single outpost of gospel truth must be surrendered. And even when sinners come against us after the manner of fashionable society, and would allure our members to the theatre, to the card table, and to the modern dance, we must contend for a simple but pure religion. The dividing line between the church and the world must be sharply drawn.4. False brethren will cause us to contend. The devil has no more effective agents than false disciples. Being in the churches, they can do more for lam than they could do if they were without. Such false brethren will object when the whole truth is preached without apology or excuse. They are very solicitous about the feelings of their friends who are sinners, or who are members of other denominations. Such brethren will cause contentions, disrupt the pastoral relation, and utterly destroy the peace and usefulness of the churches. In such cases our duty is plain. The Apostle Paul bids us (2 Thessalonians 3:6) withdraw
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from everyone that walketh disorderly. Sometimes this will cause considerable personal loss; but we cannot be true, and fail in our warfare.5. Christians of other names, who fail to obey Christ in some important respects will cause us to contend for the faith. The general excellence of our Pedobaptist brethren often causes us to overlook their errors. Because they have much to commend them their faults are concealed, not positively, perhaps, but negatively. Our intercourse with them being pleasant, we do not care to mention their shortcomings. This is not right. They fail in an important respect when they fail to obey Christ by being baptized. By substituting sprinkling - a thing of human invention - for gospel baptism, they destroy what really is the most perfect symbol of vital gospel truth. Regeneration, justification, the resurrection of Christ, and our own resurrection, all symbolized by the act of baptism, lose an eloquent enforcement as it is cast aside. The "mould of doctrine" is broken. By sprinkling infants, Pedobaptists deny to believers a most precious privilege - that of making a public profession of Christ in his own appointed way. By ascribing to any other agency a regenerating power, as so many of them do, in what they call baptism, they dishonor by so much the work of the Holy Spirit. It is not true charity to these brethren to be silent as to their false doctrines. We should teach them the way of the Lord more perfectly; and this will cause us to contend for the faith.
6. The victories we have achieved should inspire us to contend for the faith. To stand up for the truth when the battle is waging is the strongest evidence of faith; and a strong and abiding conviction of right will hold us up
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even in the face of adversity. But the shout of victory brings rejoicing and a strengthening of faith. In the past we have contended, and we have wou. This should be the inspiration for future conquests. As a matter of history, infant sprinkling is less practiced than formerly. Baptist influence has caused this. Immersion is becoming more generally accepted as the true form of baptism. No respectable Pedobaptist scholar will now assert that infunt sprinkling is found in the Bible, or that anything but immersion is baptism. By contending for the faith we have forced Pedobaptists to admit that the only claim they have for infant sprinkling, so far as the Bible is concerned, is a purely inferential one; and to defend their sprinkling of adults solely on the ground of expediency. The progress that Baptist principles have made in the past one hundred years is great; and if we are only faithful, we shall probably bring our Pedobaptist brethren still nearer to the truth. We owe it to Christ and to them that this be done; and our victories in the past and in the present are an inspiration for us to be thus faithful.II. But we must not only contend; we should contend earnestly.
Christ wants no half-hearted service. Whatever we do for him must be done with all our might. We must be in earnest. Earnestness in a right cause will carry conviction. But we should be careful as to the manner in which we contend. We should never employ denunciation, or direct the force of our argument against any man; for it is not the man, but his doctrines which we oppose. We should carefully disconnect the man from the errors which he holds; and, while for his errors we hfive nothing but utter destruction, for him personally we have only
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peace and good will. The man we want to save. Going forth in the spirit of our Lord, we may use the hardest kind of argument if only our words are soft, and fragrant with kindness and love. And with this spirit we shall conquer.III. And, now, what is the faith for which we must contend earnestly?
It is New Testament truth - the truth and the whole truth. Exclnding the commonly accepted evangelical doctrines, some of its elements are:1. The integrity and sufficiency of God's word. Biblical criticism has been of service; but some of it is entirely too radical and utterly destructive. When criticism is applied to the Bible in such a way as to destroy its very life, then it is time to call a halt. God's book in its entirety, with the doctrine of plenary inspiration, must be contended for, and we must likewise maintain the sufficiency of the Scriptures for all men and for all ages. The Bible is a completed and sufficient book. It is the oracle of God. There may be, and doubtless is, progress in understanding what it teaches. Many things may be plainer to us than to those of preceding years, but the book itself remains intact. It is a sufficient rule of doctrine and practice. It needs no help from tradition, or the enactments of synods and councils. All we have to do is to rely solely upon it, conforming our beliefs and lives to ita teachings, doing what the Lord commands, and rejecting everything that man, by a false interpretation, would put into it. The Bible has made Christian civilization what it is, and the same Bible will go on in its glorious work through all time for the healing of the nations. We must stand by the Bible and defend it.
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2. Another element for which we must contend is a converted church membership. Baptists have always contended that no one has a right to church membership unless he has been born again, and there is no probability that we shall ever change our requirement in this particular. But, while we will not knowingly receive any one except on profession of faith in Jesus Christ, it is to be feared that some methods we employ in revival meetings result in bringing into the churches many who know not Christ in the forgiveness of sins. Perhaps there never was a time when the churches were free from false disciples, and perhaps they never will be free from them; but we ought to be careful to keep the number as few as possible. Unconverted people get into our churches mainly in two ways. In a revival, when the preaching is more sound than sense; when reliance is placed, not so much upon the simple doctrines of repentance and faith, but rather upon singing and other physical demonstrations; when the members, with doubtless good intentions, gather around those who are seeking Christ, and sing and pray over them until they "get religion"; when, in brief, physical feeling is substituted for judgment and positive conviction; then it is very likely that a large number of those who profess to be converted will be mistaken. They are baptized, but they do not remain in the churches very long. They have nothing to remain for. They go in with the rush of an excitement, and they come out when the excitement has ended. Too much care cannot be taken in preaching to sinners. They should be made to understand that praying cannot save them; nor can singing. Belief in Christ alone saves. Hence the doctrines of repentance and faith, the atonement, and free salvation should be
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preached in a very plain and simple manner. The work of the Holy Spirit in convicting and regenerating should be explained, and the instrumentality of the word of God in regeneration distinctly shown. All these should be made plain to men's understanding, and then the question of deciding for Christ should be pressed home to their hearts.Another danger that confronts us is the change that has taken place in the manner of accepting Christ. The older preachers used to make much of what they called the law work, and possibly too little of the work of grace. They would have the sinner feel the weight of a broken law, and suffer mental and spiritual anguish because of the weight of sin. They were in no special hurry to have a man converted, but preferred that he should have the experience of Bunyan's Pilgrim from the time he left the City of Destruction, until, at the,sight of the cross, the burden of sin fell from his shoulders. More modern preachers reject this method of presenting truth. They go to the other extreme, and underrate the work of the law. And so the gospel is often presented in such a way as to belittle the change needed in conversion. Men are told "to accept Christ," "to believe," "to profess Jesus," in such a way as to leave the impression that the act is purely voluntary and mechanical. Hence many do profess Christ and claim to love Jeaiis, whose hearts have not been touched.
The proper ground is the middle one. Men must realize their sins. No man can have godly sorrow for sin unless he realizes that he is a sinner without excuse before God. His heart must be ploughed up with deep furrows. Hence if he does not thus realize his sin, and has not godly sorrow,
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and does not resolve to quit sin, there is no repentance. The law and grace, - the thing that Christ saves us from and that by which we are saved, - should be presented together; and when men thus realize their own desperately helpless condition, and have truly repented, then may they be taught that -
"Nothing either great or small,
Remains for me to do;
Jesus died and paid it all, -
Yes, all the debt I owe."It is by such an experience, and such alone, that persons should be received as candidates for baptism, and thus for membership in the church. Only in our denomination is this method of entering the church rigidly adhered to, and so it is our mission to proclaim to all men everywhere the doctrine of a pure gospel church, composed only of baptized believers.
3. Still another element of truth for which to contend is, that immersion alone is baptism. A few centuries ago, those proclaiming this truth were called Ana-baptists - a name meaning those who baptized again. But they did not regard sprinkling as baptism any more than we do. It was no baptism at all. So what they demanded was not a second baptism, but "one baptism," and only one. By contending for scriptural baptism, Baptists have at last brought the scholarship of the world to acknowledge the correctness of their position. If any Pedobaptist is rash enough now to deny that immersion is the baptism of the New Testament, the most effective thing to show him is the almost unanimous confession of Pedobaptist scholars. With a unanimity that is gratifying they admit
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that the apostolic baptism was immersion, although they seek to defend sprinkling by other than New Testament support.Baptism is an external rite, but, it is full of essential gospel truth. It symbolizes truths upon which the salvation of every believer depends. It sets forth the resurrection of Christ, without which no man could be saved. (1 Corinthians 15:14.) Christ must rise from the grave for our justification. Upon the resurrection of Christ hung the validity of Christianity. That was the pivotal point. That fact must be proven, and it was. Witnesses of the fact were abundant, and the apostles never failed, in preaching, to proclaim it.
Christ's foreknowledge enabled him to grasp the fact of his resurrection, and so he gave to his churches a beautiful yet wonderfully expressive ordinance, which through all coming time would teach men by symbol, that as he died for our sins, even so he arose for the completion of our redemption.
But it must be remembered that we never baptize a man to save him. We ascribe to baptism no saving power. Christ alone saves us by his gracious work upon the heart, and when we baptize a believer, it is on the ground that he is already saved.
4. Another point to be contended for is, the baptism of believers only. We are commanded to make disciples out of all nations, and then to baptize them. (Matthew 28:19.) We have no authority to administer the ordinance to any but those who make profession of saving faith in the Lord Jesus. Christ. To unconscious babes and grown-up sinners alike we refuse the ordinance. This doctrine is vital. Its destruction would mean the disintegration of every
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church founded on the New Testament plan. None but Baptists stand and contend for this doctrine, which means so much to the kingdom of our Lord. If, then, we fail to proclaim it, the world will never know it. We have been set for the defense of this truth, and valiantly we should contend for it.5. Still another element in the faith to be contended for is the Lord's Supper for orderly baptized believers. For believers, for baptized believers, for orderly baptized believers - for them only. Perhaps at no point have Baptists been less understood than at this of restricted communion. Now the Lord's Supper is not a feast, in which Christians are to show their love to one another. It is a memorial, by which they show Christ's death. (1 Corinthians 11:26.) It is not a personal possession. It belongs to the local church. We can invite none but orderly baptized believers to partake of it, because it is not intended for others. He who partakes must be a believer. He must have personal union with Christ. He must have put on Christ by baptism, and his Christian life must be blameless. We cannot invite others than those who, upon credible evidence of saving faith in Jesus Christ, have been baptized according to his command, and are walking orderly in his church, organized after the New Testament plan. We must contend for the purity and integrity of the Lord's Supper as a church ordinance, and invite none but those who are obedient to the Lord's commands.
IV. How best may we contend?
1. By a vigorous presentation of scriptural truth in its entirety. The circle of doctrines ordinarily preached must be enlarged, and they must be preached with vigor. We may not preach from the New Testament alone, but
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from the Old as well. Not only favorite doctrines should be presented, but others possibly less to our taste. It is well for us to remember that all Scripture given by inspiration of God is profitable, and no part of it should be omitted. It is only as we preach all the doctrines of the gospel that we can make symmetrically developed Christians. Doctrine and life are inseparable, and the Lord intended his people to attain unto the stature of men in himself. (Ephesians 4:13.) The young Christian needs to know of his privileges; and hence he should understand the doctrines of justification, adoption, sanctification, and final perseverance. He needs likewise to know of his duty, and so the doctrines of self-denial and personal sacrifice should be taught him. The great claims of home and foreign missions, colportage, Bible work, ministerial and general education, and the care of the poor, should be pressed hard upon his heart. We have too many undeveloped churches now. Let us reduce the number of them as rapidly as possible. And when our people fully understand the teachings of God's word, then will they be able and willing to contend for the faith.2. We may contend by a more thorough and aggressive missionary work. Mission work is the truest exponent of Christianity's charter. The command to make disciples was meant to be of universal application. (Matthew 28:19, 20.) It is not to the credit of God's people that the world should have remained unevangelized for nearly two thousand years after Christ died. We have never properly taught the people to give according to the necessities of Christ's work, nor have we yet undertaken that mission work which we must undertake before the Lord's kingdom will fully come. This is a matter of which all
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are conscious. So far as practical results are concerned, it would be far better for us to baptize fewer people, and train those we already have. Really it would be an advantage to the Lord's cause if we would for a while stop preaching to sinners, and devote ourselves, body, mind, and heart, to the development of the great masses now upon our hands who are doing nothing to extend the Lord's kingdom. A great deal can be done without much outlay of money. Nearly every Christian can do something in his neighborhood. Every one of our cities is legitimate mission ground. At our very doors we can do mission work; and we ought to do it. But home and foreign missions should be more vigorously prosecuted. In these ways we can effectively contend for the faith.3. By building up our institutions of learning we can contend for the faith.
(1) We should make them equal to the best in the land. We should give our money, and plenty of it, to provide teachers, buildings, and apparatus, so that our schools may not be surpassed by any. We need to give our young people a thorough training. Our surroundings demand a complete education, both mental and industrial.
(2) We should send all our students to our own schools. We not only need to educate, but also to educate from a Baptist standpoint. It is worse than folly to place our young people under influences which will destroy their denominational life. We hold truth to be sacred, and we dare not allow it to be displaced by error. Our churches need strong men and women to support the work projected by our ministry, and we can have strong men and women only as they are trained in our own schools. There is no
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good reason for sending even one student to any but a Baptist institution.(3) And we should use our schools directly in the interest of our denomination. Our schools were built with money given by Baptists for the education of Baptists. We did not go to the national government or to State legislatures, and pretend to be undenominational, in order to get public funds. No; we have always sailed under our true colors, and Baptists willingly and knowingly gave. Now, since our schools were planted as missionary agencies, they should always, be used as such. It is neither good sense nor sound policy to conduct them on any other basis. We should use our institutions to promote the truth in Christ as we understand it. When we shall become more aggressive in this direction, then will we have still greater success.
4. Again, we may contend by promoting the efficiency of our Sunday-schools, in which the young should be indoctrinated. The Roman Catholics set us a good example in this direction. As soon as a child is able to understand, he is taught their doctrine. Even so should we act. Every Baptist child should be taught Baptist doctrine. Into the Sunday-school he should be placed just as early as he can understand, and there be kept. The catechism should be taught, as well as the Bible. Every church should have a good home school, and one or more missions, if possible. Hold the young! Such a course will enable us to contend for the faith in a very practical manner.
5. By a wide use of the printed page, we may likewise contend for the faith. We must, more than formerly, employ the printing press. Put the Bible everywhere.
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It is the strongest possible Baptist book. Only let men know what the Lord commands. Let them read for themselves. When men search the Scriptures for themselves, they will rely less on tradition. Many things which we preach are not known by many people to be in the New Testament; while they vainly imagine that many things they believe and practice are in the Bible. Let us undeceive the people. God's word is a great means of enlightenment.6. And, lastly, we should use freely such tracts and books as set forth our doctripes. Scatter these leaves far and wide. Many a time a man will refuse to hear us because he is blinded by prejudice; but the printed page will speak to him in his calm moments and carry conviction to his heart. Great have been the victories of the printed page, and greater still will be our future victories, if we rightly and freely employ these means of contending which God has placed in our hands.
Thus, for these various ends, and in these several ways, we should contend for the faith; and, in all this, our only motive should be the honor and manifested glory of our Lord, that his word may have free course throughout the earth, and that his kingdom may everywhere be established.
========== [From Edward Macknight Brawley, editor, The Negro Baptist Pulpit: A Collection of Sermons and Papers on Baptist Doctrine. . . , pp. 11-27. Document from Google Books. Scanned and formatted by Jim Duvall]
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